Recently, in the United Kingdom, the use of wax, especially mineral hydrocarbon wax, in gum bases, has come under scrutiny. There is a perception in the United Kingdom that it may not be desirable to use wax in gum bases. This perception could result in possible regulatory issues, in the United Kingdom, concerning the use of wax in gum base.
Unfortunately, one cannot merely remove wax from a gum base without possibly compromising certain desirable characteristics of the resulting chewing gum product. Wax provides a number of functions in the gum base. For example, wax can influence the release of flavor from the gum product. Furthermore, wax aids in the curing of the finished gum product that is made from the gum base. Additionally, wax contributes to the shelf-life of the finished gum and its texture.
Although some gum bases are known that do not contain wax, they, the inventor believes, typically do not have the chew characteristics, in addition to other characteristics, of typical chewing gums that are created from wax containing gum bases. Heretofore, gum bases without wax were not created in response to any regulatory concerns, but rather, were merely created as part of bases to achieve other ends, for example, a non-tack gum. Therefore, in certain instances, compromises with respect to certain characteristics may have been made to achieve other results, e.g., non-tack, promote stability of certain ingredients, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,574, issued to Comollo, discloses an abhesive chewing gum base in which the non-tack properties were achieved by eliminating conventional chewing gum base ingredients which were found to contribute to chewing gum tackiness, and by substituting non-tacky ingredients in place of the conventional ingredients. Specifically, it was discovered that three classes of materials account for conventional chewing gum tackiness. These materials are elastomers, resins, and waxes.
Comollo eliminated natural and some synthetic elastomer from the chewing gum base, and substituted in their place one or more non-tacky synthetic elastomers such as polyisobutylene, polyisoprene, isobutylene-isoprene copolymer and butadiene-styrene copolymer. Comollo also eliminated the tack-producing natural resins and modified natural resins and used instead relatively high amounts of hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils or animal fats. Finally, Comollo completely excluded waxes from the gum base, but included polyvinyl acetate, fatty acids, and mono and diglycerides of fatty acids.
Providing a reduced or low calorie chewing gum has long been a goal in the chewing gum industry. A method used to attempt to provide satisfactory low calorie chewing gum is to reduce or eliminate the caloric bulking agent. Typically, this bulking agent accounts for virtually all of the calories in a typical gum product. Although such low calorie gum products are known, there are several disadvantages with such products.
In order to compensate for the bulking agent, that is reduced or eliminated, the proportion of gum base is increased. These low caloric gum products therefore have high base levels. However, this results in an inherently expensive product because the gum base is usually more expensive than the bulking agent.
Indeed, the cost issue is exacerbated by the fact that flavor, an even more expensive ingredient, must be increased in proportion to the base. Usual gum bases will bind with flavor so that a large portion of the flavor will not be released and therefore, the flavor will not be perceivable to the chewer. Therefore, to achieve an equivalent flavor impact, a higher flavor level must be used.
A further concern is that chewing gums that have a high percent of gum base typically also have high wax content. This increases the concerns raised above with respect to wax.
There is therefore a need for an improved low calorie, high base chewing gum and method for making same.